THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE SCENE

It takes a pod to understand orcas

A small core team. A wide collaborator network.

Core Team

Eve Jourdain

Founder, Director & Lead scientist

Eve founded Norwegian Orca Survey (NOS) in 2013 and has since led more than a decade of year-round research on killer whales in Norwegian waters. Through sustained fieldwork and the long-term tracking of individual whales, she has built one of the most comprehensive datasets on this population - spanning their ecology, life histories, diet, health and behavior.

This work formed the foundation of her PhD and later research at the University of Oslo, including the MULTIWHALE and ORCADAPT projects.Today, Eve uses this unique long-term perspective not only to understand how Norway’s killer whale population is changing and responds and adapts to a changing environment.

Research interests

Feeding ecology, Demographics, Ecotoxicology, Social ecology

Field expertise

Boat handling · Biopsy sampling

Publications

Richard Karoliussen

Co-Director & Field operations

Richard co-founded Norwegian Orca Survey in 2014 and has been at the heart of its field operations ever since. As NOS's primary skipper, he brings more than a decade of experience working at close range with killer whales in Norwegian waters—expertise that is critical to collecting high-quality scientific data safely and with minimal disturbance.

Richard leads much of NOS's work at sea, from locating and tracking whales to biological sampling and aerial data collection. An experienced drone pilot, he captures imagery used to investigate body condition, behaviour and social dynamics. His seamanship, technical expertise and exceptional practical knowledge of killer whale behaviour have been fundamental to building the long-term research programme NOS has today.

Field expertise

Boat handling · Tagging · Biopsy sampling · Drone operations

Research Team

Jade van Dam, MSc

Research assistant

Jade turns field observations into usable scientific data. As a research assistant, she processes photo-identification images and drone footage, helping track individual whales and maintain NOS’s growing long-term database.

Alongside her research work, Jade works as a whale-watching guide, combining hands-on experience at sea with a passion for communicating whale science to the public.

Paul Arnold

Software Developer

Paul combines machine learning for image analysis to implement new internal tools that can accelerate work flows at NOS. Paul is a

Master student in image analysis and machine learning at Uppsala University, Sweden. His expertise is particularly suited to unlocking the potential of NOS’s rapidly growing image-based datasets. He also works on public-facing technologies that make it easier for citizen scientists to contribute to killer whale research.

Clare Andvik

PhD candidate,

University of Oslo

Clare first volunteered with Norwegian Orca Survey in the summer of 2016, and has since been involved as both a master student and research assistant. Clare is now a PhD candidate on the MULTIWHALE project, studying the effects of multiple stressors on Norwegian killer whales. Her focus is the levels and effects of pollution on individuals in the population, in conjunction with other human activities.

Elena Sasso

Master student,

University of Rome

Elena is a Master's student in Marine Ecobiology at La Sapienza University of Rome. Her master's thesis, part of the MULTIWHALE project, focuses on Norwegian killer whales' behavioral responses to whale-watching activities. She also works as a guide on whale-watching cruises for Whale2Sea and Whale Safari, aiming to share her love for marine wildlife with customers.

Publications

Victorine Lambert

Master student,

McGill University

Victorine is a master student at McGill University (Canada) under the supervision of Melissa McKinney (McGill) and Cory Matthews (Department Fisheries and Oceans Canada), investigating contaminants and diet in killer whales using ecological tracers within skin and blubber.